A great deal of effort has been expended in efforts to develop cleaning compositions for automotive surfaces, in particular whitewall tires and vinyl tops, which would efficiently remove road film from these surfaces. Road film is a mixture of dirt, fuel residues, lubricant residues, soot, and any other material which settles on the vehicle from the air or is picked up from roads. Generally, road film is very difficult to clean. Further, detergent compositions formulated for this purpose must be strong enough to remove the road film without harming the particular automotive surface to which they are applied. For example, the detergent composition must be able to clean road film from vinyl tops without dulling the surface thereof.
Prior art detergent compositions are known which contain components similar to the composition of the present invention. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,228,043 to van den Brom, issued on Oct. 14, 1980, discloses a liquid detergent composition containing an organic sulfonate, a sulfated alcohol salt, a fatty acid amide, a tripolyphosphate, an orthophosphate, a metal carbonate, a dye, perfume, and preservative, and water.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,255,294 to Rudy et al, issued Mar. 10, 1981, discloses a fabric softening composition containing a sulfonate, a tripolyphosphate, a carboxymethyl cellulose, a fatty acid amide, a sulfate, an organic sulfonate, a silicate, a dye and preservative, and water.
Matsuda, U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,771, issued Jan. 26, 1982, discloses a liquid soap composition comprising a fatty acid, a fatty acid amide, propylene glycol, glycerine, a fungicide, a pearling agent, a dye and a perfume.
No compositions are known however which contain applicant's unique combination of components and utility for cleaning surfaces which require good but non-injurious cleaning.